From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has implored media practitioners to sustain the interrogation and evaluation of Nigerian content performance.
The General Manager, Corporate Communications and Zonal Coordination, Mr Eseueme Dan Kikile who stated this at a one-day Nigerian Content Capacity Building workshop for media stakeholders with the theme: The Role of the Media in Sustaining Nigerian Content Legacies” disclosed that in the last ten years local content has moved from 5 % to 54 %.
According to him, with the recent changes at the management level of the Board which ushered in Engr Felix Omatshola Ogbe as the new Executive Secretary, it is imperative that the Media keeps the issue of local content in the Oil and Gas sector at the front burner.
He disclosed that the objective of the workshop is to arm media practitioners with the requite knowledge to disseminate local content policies and evaluate its performance using the fundamentals of media strategy.
While stating that the workshop provides an opportunity for the Board to measure its performance from the public perspective, it also gives the Media the avenue to know more about what NCDMB is doing.
Kikile who stressed the importance of media as an instrument of development, declared that the new Executive Secretary, Engr Felix Ogbe has a deep knowledge in Oil and Gas which would further push the issue of Local Content into the front burner.
“We have had a transition, so we need to put Local Content at the front burner of policies and programmes so that people would know what Local Content has become. The media should continue to sustain the need for local content.
‘’We have a leadership that has deep knowledge of Oil and Gas. The new Executive Secretary, Engr Felix Omatshola Ogbe spent 37 years in core Oil and gas operations in Chevron where he was responsible for many projects in Nigeria, other parts of Africa, Middle East and the United States of America. He has deep experience, ‘’ he said.
Other speakers at the event include Dr Austin Tam- George, Executive Director, Institute of Communication and Corporate Studies, Lagos and Dr Vernon L Myers, Senior Executive Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge Massachusetts.